


Right Now, We've Got All the Time in the World

by srmiller



Category: Emerald City (TV 2016)
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Fluff, canon up to episode 3, knightgale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9398252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/srmiller/pseuds/srmiller
Summary: "We’re stuck here,” Dorothy announced. “And we might as well pass the time.”“With holidays?”“We had a holiday right before I came here,” Dorothy told him. “It was a celebration of independence for our country, and we celebrate with our country’s colors and fireworks and parades and lots of alcohol. It’s fun and happy and loud.”Lucas settled against the cell bars so they’d be brushing shoulders if not for the metal between them. “We have Dhá Gealacha.”





	

“Do you have holidays here in Oz?”

There was the clank of metal as Lucas shifted in the darkness.

“You really want to talk about this now?”

Dorothy looked around the cells where she and Lucas were currently locked up. “You have something better to do?”

“We should be trying to find a way out.”

Moving across the cell floor she leaned against the bars separating her and Lucas. “These cells are magical and I know people think I’m a witch but that's only because they think I killed a witch, but technically she killed herself. So, unless you suddenly remembered that you’re a wizard and have magic powers...?”

The lighting was dim in the cells but now that she was closer she could see him narrowing his eyes at her. “No.”

“Then we’re stuck here,” Dorothy announced. “And we might as well pass the time.”

“With holidays?”

“We had a holiday right before I came here,” Dorothy told him conversationally, as if they weren't currently awaiting torture or execution at the hands of the Wizard. “It was for the independence of our country, and we celebrate with our national colors and fireworks and parades and lots of alcohol. It’s fun and happy and loud.”

Lucas settled against the cell bars so they’d be brushing shoulders if not for the metal between them. “We have Dhá Gealacha."

“What does that mean?”

“Two moons.”

“You have two moons,” Dorothy asked, wondering how it was possible she could have missed that.

“Only once a year,” he answered. “It’s a big deal. One of the moons covers the sun and the other rises and sets over the course of 36 hours.”

“Thirty-six hours?”

“That’s how long a day is,” he says as if she should already know that. She refrains from reminding him she’s not from around here, and that he doesn’t know his real name. “There’s an entire day of celebrations and parades. People come out in droves to sell their ware or buy sugared fruit and then Twilight hits. It’s one minute when the first moon, our regular moon, eclipses the sun and the second moon lines up underneath it and the whole land goes quiet. People stop talking, dogs don’t bark, the birds fall silent and everyone looks up.”

His voice had been calm and soothing, a storyteller’s voice Dorothy had thought,and with a few simple sentences he’d wrapped her up in the image he created. She pictured colorful flags hanging from buildings and across streets, hundreds of people crowding the roadways as they passed merchants set up on sidewalks and blocking alley entrances.

There was laughter in her imagination, and she wanted to see it for herself.

“And what?” Dorothy asked when he didn’t explain further. She got the whole stoic, man of few words was his image but _come on._ “They look up and what?”

“Why would they need to do anything but appreciate the beauty of a once-a-year event?”

Dorothy chuckled nervously. “I don’t know, I thought it was like a falling star or something. Maybe you made a wish, or asked the gods for a blessing, I don’t know.”

He shifted on the ground beside her and the movement was decidedly nervous, a motion she wouldn’t have noticed when they first met but after the amount of time they’d spent together it was easy to recognize his ticks.

“They kiss,” he begrudgingly admitted.

“They do?’ Dorothy asked, knowing her voice had gone soft at the fairy tale of it all. Maybe people thought they weren’t good for children to love but watching orphans find someone to love them, to pick them, had been vital to the little girl she’d been.

He shifted again. “Yes. Everyone looks up at the moons, and then you kiss the person most important to you. It’s a promise, to be there for each other till the next Dhá Gealacha.”

“That’s…” Dorothy paused, trying to find the right word. “That’s lovely.”

“It’s absurd,” he argued, but there wasn’t a lot of heat behind it. “No one can know what’s to come, and you shouldn’t make a promise to someone you know you can’t keep.”

“I think it’s the intent that’s important,” Dorothy pointed out. “So, does that mean you’ve never kissed someone under the Two Moons?”

“I don’t know,” he reminded her, but he didn’t seem offended she’d briefly forgotten about his amnesia. “But I doubt it. I imagine being a part of the Wizard’s guard is all consuming and doesn’t leave much room for promises or…or love.”

She’d have bumped his shoulder if she could. “Good thing you’re not in the guard anymore.”

He made a point to look around their cells. “Yes, this is much better.”

“Oh, come on, this is hardly the worse thing you’ve been through. You forget I rescued you from being tied to a post in the middle of nowhere.”

“You saved me,” he admitted. “But I’m not sure what good you’ll do me locked up beside me.”

“Misery loves company?” she offered helpfully and he chuckled which she considered a victory. He didn’t laugh nearly enough to suit her. “Where I am doesn’t matter, I’m stubborn.”

“Color me surprised.”

She put her arm through the cell bars to pinch his arm. “What I mean is, I’m not giving up. We’re getting out of here Lucas.”

Dorothy shifted on the cell floor so she could face him through the empty spaces. “When’s the next Dhá Gealacha? Did I say it right?”

He nodded. “It’s in three weeks, why?”

“Because I’m going to get us out of here and you’re going to have a chance to kiss someone under the eclipse.”

Lucas didn’t say anything for a long moment but eventually he met her gaze with a kind of seriousness which made Dorothy’s heart thump against her ribs. “Where will you be in three weeks?”

She looked away because for some reason the answer made her sad. “Kansas, hopefully.”

“Too bad.” Dorothy looked up at him, hope burning bright in her chest. “I think you’d have liked the sugared fruit."

The weight of disappointment was heavy in her chest, unfamiliar because it had been so long since she’d allowed herself to want…anything. “I’d have loved the sugar fruit,” Dorothy agreed and wondered why it sounded like she’d said something else.

After all, it wasn’t as if she could love _him_ after only knowing him for a couple of weeks.

He put his hand through the bars of the cell and covered her hand with his. “It’s too bad it requires the sky to split in order for you to come and go.”

“It is,” Dorothy agreed, clinging to his hand. “If it wasn’t so hard I could introduce Lucas the person to Lucas the city. We could have pizza and watch movies. I could show you where I grew up.”

“I don’t know where I grew up,” he said aloud as if just realizing it.

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be, sometimes I think it’s better not to know. Maybe I can be a better person without the history.”

“You don’t think you were a good person before?”

“You found me tied up in the middle of nowhere,” he reminded her dryly.

“Yeah, but maybe it was because you refused to do something terrible,” she argued. “Your commander or whatever ordered you to burn down a family house or something and you refused so they punished you.”

“Or I did something terrible to a family and someone decided to find me and take revenge.”

Dorothy shook her head, “And I thought I was a pessimist.”

“It’s better to be real,” he pointed out. “And what’s real is you’re leaving as soon as you can, and I’m going to have to figure the rest of this out myself.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Dorothy assured him.

He shook his head. “You have a family to get back to, a life. You saved mine, the least I can do is help you get back to yours. You gave me my name," he reminded her softly. “I owe you everything.”

“You forced me to give you a name,” Dorothy laughed softly. “But thank you.”

The silence between them hung heavily and Dorothy didn’t like the tinge of gray between them. “I should tell you about Halloween,” she decided. “When little kids dress up like witches and princesses and heroes and go to the houses of strangers to ask for candy.”

Lucas scoffed as if the idea was absurd. “Then I’ll tell you about Night of the Bells. No one knows why it’s called that because it has nothing to do with bells.”

Dorothy shifted her fingers in his hands so their fingers were linked together. “Wait till I tell you about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.”

He smiled at her, a little light in the darkness. “Well, it seems like we’ve got all the time in the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dhá Gealacha means in 'Two Moons' in Irish....or at least is does when you ask Google Translate


End file.
